Transcript

00:00:02

>> Seoul and Washington leading a mission to pile the pressure on Pyongyang, prodding North Korea's cold war allies to get more involved as it pursues nuclear weapons in the face of UN sanctions. But the North's old friends aren't exactly sitting on their hands. Reuters's Ju-min Park reports that ever since sanctions were tightened in March, many have clamped down on its global links like shipping.

00:00:25

>> North Korea commonly uses flags of convenience from other nations to conceal the identity of its ships. Mongolia and Panama have de-listed North Korean vessels on using their flags. And Cambodia known as the top flagger for North Korean vessels recently put an end to its so called flag of convenience system.

00:00:46

If other countries follow, it will hurt North Korea's arms trade and illicit businesses. Angola which is suspected of buying military equipment from Pyongyang is banning North Korean companies altogether. Singapore and Ukraine have cut off Visa-free travel for its citizens. And Poland has stopped hiring from the sea of workers that Pyongyang sends abroad.

00:01:09

>> Pyongyang sends its workers overseas in places like sewing factories in China or lumber industry in Siberia. The migrant workers are known as one of the North Korea's money making sources. That number an estimated a 50,000 and generate between $1.2 billion and $2.3 billion per year.>> With pressure from Seoul and Washington, these measures are likely to increase, but there is another old ally which hasn't responded, Beijing.

00:01:39

And since the vast majority of North Korea's trade today is with China, analysts say until that old friend joins the team, a sanction here or there isn't likely to make much of a dent.